The New Assistant
by Zacheria
Summary: When Naru accepts a case from a rich woman, Mai is shocked to learn that he hired a new assistant without her or anybody's knowlege! What will this assistant's bloody past do to SPR? Rated for violence and language
1. Part 1: The Ritual

The New Assistant

Part 1: The Ritual

"Hey, Onee-chan I'm home!" I shouted as I walked through the very large oak front doors of my house, they were about 8 ft. tall and were stained dark brown. There were cravings of apples and flowers throughout.

I stepped into my foyer, bending over to take my red converse and socks off. It was high ceilinged and had a big multicolored chandelier hanging from a gold chain, the floors were red wood and polished to perfection, basically a rich cliché.

Just then I heard a loud scream from upstairs, I recognized it as my sister, Alexis'. I shot strait up looking up slightly then taking off, bolting up the stairs (which were white granite and had black ivory hand railings, it mimicked a piano). I heard her scream again this time I recognized the word; no. I looked around desperately trying to find were it was coming from, I then heard a loud thump, she screamed again this time the word; please. I heard the gunshot a second before blinding pain radiated from my right leg I fell on to the floor clutching it slightly. You see not only was Alexis my sister, she was my identical twin; we shared a telepathic connection, strongest whenever the other was in pain, no matter how small. I somehow managed to stand up. I took a step on shaky legs. I looked down the hall to my left then right, I shot to my left, she was in her room I was sure. I stopped at the last door on the right. I placed my hand on the doorknob (which was crystal) when a man's voice said,

"There's someone else here right now, standing outside the door right now huh!?" his manner of speaking was vulgar and disrespectful. "Don't lie to me, I heard someone shout!" I heard her sob. "You there, come in right now with your hands were I can see em'!" I froze in fear, he knew I was there! I turned the doorknob slowly till it clicked open. I opened the door, the metallic smell of blood rushed into my nostrils; my sister was lying on the ground clutching her right leg she was curled away from me. Blood was pouring from behind her hands, creating a pool. I brought my hands to my mouth, in shock.

I looked up, her shooter was a man in his late 30's, his hair and eyes were dark brown. His eyes held a crazed gleam to them which only became more prominent when he sneered, revealing tobacco stained teeth. His build was large, at least 6 ft. tall.

"W-what do you want!?" I said letting my hands move down to my sides, clenched in white knuckled fists.

"Do you really think you're in a position to be demanding answers right now?" he said holding up a black pistol, aiming it at me, and fingering the trigger, almost lovingly. I felt my short nails painfully as I tightened my fists even more. "I thought not. Anyway, now I accidentally killed my daughter and I need her alive so I won't go to jail. In order to bring her back to life, I need one of you to be a sacrifice and one as a handhold that she can use to get back into this world. You decide which." This guy was beyond slightly crazy, he was a sociopathic murderer!

"Never, you Bastard!!" my sister yelled through clenched teeth. His sneer grew into a full toothed simile his eyes crazier than ever.

"Now, now, no need for such language young lady, but oh well you just decided to be the sacrifice, for you have just pissed me off." He said in a mock parental tone, he shrugged his shoulders and said "Say goodnight, girly."

"NOOOOOO!!!!!!" I screamed, he shot and I felt half of me literally being ripped away, she was dead, I knew. I felt an immense pain in my chest, were my heart was, he must have shot her there, killing her instantly.

More of her blood, bright crimson red, pooled around her, it reached my bare feet, it was warm. I fell to my knees with a thud, for my legs were no longer able to support me. My mouth was agape I stared and at the floor, now stained red. I was frozen in pure shock.

"Now that, that's done…" said the murderer, trailing off, I looked up he had his back turned to me and was bent over behind my sister's bed. When he stood up I saw an arm, white as chalk, and a leg, that same deathly white. He turned around, he was holding the body of a girl, her eyes were wide open with pupils dilated, the left one was green, but it looked really faded almost as if it had a gray film over it, at least compared to the other one which was the color of well watered grass. Her hair was strait and black it was slightly layered and had red highlights in it that matched the color of blood. Her lips were blue tinted as well as her fingers and toes. He stepped over Alexis' body and set the girl down in front of me. Kneeling, he set down the gun next to him and fished around in his tuxedo jacket's pocket till he found what he was looking for, I saw the silver glimmer of a blade. The knife was one of those army knife things the ones were the blade folds in and out this one was serrated and had dried blood on it. He grasped it in his right hand and cut open the pointer finger of his left with the tip. He smeared his blood on his forehead writing the kanji for death. He grabbed the girl's right hand and sliced open the palm, blood barely oozed out of it. He grabbed my right hand, I was too much in shock to protest as he sliced open my palm, the pain was hot and searing, I whimpered in response. Blood gushed out in time with my franticly beating heart. He then folded up the knife and placed it back in his pocket, never letting go of my injured hand. He picked up the girl's hand again and pressed mine and hers together, wounds touching, blood mixing. He then started chanting I couldn't understand the words they were complicated and confusing, it almost sounded like he was speaking Japanese, but backwards.

After about ten seconds of his senseless chanting I felt a strange pulling sensation, it didn't hurt exactly just… slightly unsettling.

The pulling was growing stronger and stronger as time passed, his chanting was reaching it's climax, he was yelling now.

The pulling was now painful, I screamed slightly in pain, the pulling only got more agonizing.

"Let…GO!" I yelled. Just then I was ripped from my body with the most agony I had ever felt in my life. I was suddenly surrounded in darkness; it was almost as if it had substance. It was choking; it filled my mouth and nose. Two white lights appeared suddenly in front of me, they were warm, I felt it. They both suddenly started getting bigger and bigger till they filled my vision, my surroundings were now white. Then they materialized into people, the one on the left's face came into view first, long nose, thin lips, big oval eyes the color of the sky on a cloudless summer day, my sister!! Then the one on the right, fuller lips, shorter nose, and medium almond shaped eyes, both green but the left one dull, like grass on cloudy day, and the other bright like the color that embodies spring. That guy's daughter, the one he was supposedly resurrecting?

"Alexzandria?" they both said, I nodded then I looked at the green-eyed girl and asked,

"Who are you?" she smiled sadly and said,

"My name is Lydia Tsukino." She stuck out her hand for me to shake, I noticed red on it, it was her cut one. I slowly lifted up my hand which was still cut and was bleeding profusely, I paused. She then grabbed my hand when our blood mixed she disappeared with a flash of light leaving me and Alexis. I still stood with my hand extended in front of me, I let it fall to my side limply, while saying,

"Okay???" I heard Alexis giggle slightly, I turned to face her she was stifling her laughter behind her hand. "What?" I asked cocking my head to the side, my arms crossed.

"The expression on your face!" she giggled. I couldn't bring myself to laugh with her, she was still dead, and nothing could change that. She stopped giggling when she saw my expression. "Gomenisai." she apologized looking down cast.

"Onee-chan, you're dead…right?" I asked

"Yeah, I guess I am." She admitted pushing one of her light brown locks behind her ear.

"Gomenisai, I couldn't save you, I could have done something, anything"

"Nee-chan… it's not your fault, it's mine I'm the one who should be sorry, I left you alone, but please promise me something, before _he _calls you back." I nodded

"Hai, anything..."

"Please move on. Live your life, fall in love but, I know that in order to do that your gonna' have to let me g-"

"Never!" I yelled, cutting her off,

"Please." I saw her desperate expression, it broke me further.

"Fine, I promise, I'll try my best."

"That's all I can ask for." She smiled and hugged me. We were the same height of 5'4, but to me she was always taller. I wrapped my arms around her, never wanting to let go, but I knew I had to. I un-wrapped my arms and took a step back.

"Onee-chan… See you later?" She nodded, and smiled sadly. Then suddenly I was slammed back into reality, painfully.

The first thing I saw was the murderer's face, he was smiling happily, and his eyes were shining in triumph.

"Ah!" I yelped, jerking my head back, startled.

"Hello, Lydia-chan, it's your father." He said, his breath stunk of alcohol and tobacco.

"I-I'm not Lydia." I said, slightly confused.

"Oh, honey that bitch's memories are interfering with yours, hmm maybe she was just a bit too strong willed. No matter you are Lydia Tsukino, I'm your father, Jacob Tsukino." I shook my head

"I am 'that bitch' you bastard it didn't work!" I yelled, my voice sounded strange it was lower and also it felt different, it wasn't mine. A look of pure fear and helplessness passed over his face, he then picked up the discarded gun, (which was now covered in blood), and pressed it to the side of his head. I realized he was going to shoot himself, but I did not try to stop him. He shot. BANG!! He fell to the side, his blood mixing with Alexis'.

"What do I do?" I asked to no one. I looked at my hands the right one still had gash on it, I noticed that my fingers were longer and tapered, not to mention paler. I turned them around the nails were painted black, in all my life, I had never painted my nails black. My left eye hurt slightly, I lifted a hand to touch it, but stopped, I couldn't see my hand. I waved it around the left side of my face, I couldn't see it. I closed my right eye, darkness met my vision. I opened it again; I was now blind in my left eye. I then looked at the clothes I was wearing, black t-shirt, black shorts. I almost never wore black.

I stood up; I was shaking so hard that I was surprised I was able to. My legs were covered in red, and the parts that weren't, were chalk white. I went to the full body mirror that was near the closet on the left side of the room. What I saw amazed me, I was now Lydia, my left eye was dulled out green, but my right eye was bright blue, my eye color. My normally light brown hair was now black with red highlights, layered and strait it fell to just above my shoulders. I was tall, about 5'9 and skinny, this girl was an athlete, strong legs, and abs… runner? I touched the mirror in shock, I couldn't believe it, I slide my hand off the mirror, there was blood were I had touched.

I needed to take a shower but first maybe the call the police?

_'And tell them what, that I'm Alexzandria Lynn, just in Lydia Tsukino's body? Yeah not likely.' _I thought bitterly. _'I better get the hell out of here if I don't I can't fulfill my promise...if I did that… boy would Alexis be pissed at me... I'm taking a shower so people won't stare at me on the street and/or try to help me, I don't want help… or pity.'_ I thought.

With that goal in mind I went to Alexis' bathroom careful not to look at her or the murderer's body. The bathroom was spacious, with a shower in one corner and one of those spa bathtubs in another. The floors were gray granite, as were the counters. I closed the door behind me. I suddenly felt a wave of nausea and I staggered to the toilet, I threw up blood. I now had blood mixed with saliva dribbling down my chin, that shower now sounded _really_ good. I went to the counter and looked at myself in the mirror, still Lydia. I took off my shirt revealing white skin and a black bra. '_God does this girl wear anything except black!?'_ I thought, then I noticed it; a scar. It looked relatively new; it ran in a diagonal across my stomach. I fingered it; it was raised and was rough to the touch. Then I noticed another one this one began on my right shoulder and went diagonal down my back and stopped before it wrapped back around to my stomach. It looked a little older than the other one, it being slightly more blended instead of being red. I had more scars littering my upper arms, some looked painful and deep while some were older and smaller. I was wearing a small silver heart pendent I took it off and put it next to her clothes. I stepped into the shower and turned on the water it streamed down my body turning red as it reached the floor. The warm water stung my hand, but I ignored it. After a while the water turned clear. I turned off the water and grabbed a towel from the ring. I dried my face off with it I put back on the clothes then I realized that they still had blood on them… but they were black so you wouldn't really notice when the blood dried. I put back on the pendent, and walked back into hell (aka Alexis' room). I sighed and made my way to the door trying not to step in blood. The door was still open, I walked out into the hallway and slammed the door shut loudly, I jumped at the noise. I ran across the hall to my room, it was a mirror image of Alexis' the closet was on the right side and the bathroom on the left. I went into my closet and grabbed a duffle bag I went to my dresser (which was also in the closet) and grabbed at least 7 t-shirts, 7 pairs of pants and shorts, and as many underwear, socks and bras that I could find. I somehow managed to fit them in the duffle bag. I went into my bathroom and grabbed a toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, etc, etc. I went back into my room and stuffed them into the side pockets. I went to my piggy bank (yes I have a piggy bank) and tried to open the plug, my fingers were trembling too much so I couldn't. Then I threw in on to the floor it shattered and bundles of money and coins exploded from it. I grabbed my wallet from my bedside table it was next to where my piggy bank used to be standing. I counted out the money I had about 500,000¥, I stuffed it into my wallet. I went and grabbed a sweatshirt from my closet I pulled it on, it was dark blue it was actually my older brother's so it was _still_ too big. I put my wallet into the pocket. I then grabbed my Mp3 player, my cell phone, and my journal, off my desk. I opened my journal onto a black page, I grabbed a pen from one of the drawers, and wrote, in English:

_Mom, I'm sorry,_

_Alexzandria_

I ripped out the page, put the mp3 player and cell phone into my pocket, then stuffed the journal into one of the side pockets of the duffle bag, which I zipped up and through over my shoulder. I looked at my desk, there stood a picture of me and my sister, laughing and smiling, I grabbed it and partially unzipped the duffle bag and stuffed it in, the re-zipped, and sped out of the room, note clutched in hand.

I walked promptly down the hallway, raced down the stairs. I put the note in the middle of the foyer. I went to put my converse back on, before they were a few sizes to big… but now they were fine. I opened the front door, I looked back, and sighed, then I shut the door on my life, running away, but _not_ forever.


	2. Part 2:Tears of My Heart

Hi, Zacheria here, I going to re-upload Part 1, it has some minor changes, by the way please review, it's not hard you can say whatever the heck you want I won't care just review! (Please)

Anyway here's Part 2 of The New Assistant!

The New Assistant

Part 2: Tears of My Heart

I had been running nearly non-stop for hours when it started to rain. It was as if the sky matched what my heart was doing; crying.

My legs were about to give out, I needed to stop, but I was right this girl was defiantly a runner. I slowed to a walk, then staggered and fell to my knees, hard on the concrete; my black duffel bag thunked as it landed beside me. I had taken off my sweatshirt and stuffed it into the bag, along with my cell phone, my MP3 player and my wallet, which were in the pockets. I was breathing heavily and I was shaking from exhaustion. I lifted my face to the sky and closed my eyes. I felt the cold, wet drops on my face and arms. The cut on my right hand still stung painfully, I didn't think I could move it just yet, but the bleeding had lessened slightly. The blood dripped off my fingers, mixing with the rain.

I was somewhere in Shibuya, but I hadn't been able to read the signs with one eye, so I had no clue where I was.

"Are you alright miss?" asked a low, deep voice. I looked down and opened my eyes. A man was kneeling in front of me, he had least one dark gray eye, the other hidden was hidden behind his strait black hair. He was broad shouldered and tall even when kneeling. He was wearing a black vest over a white long-sleeved button-up shirt with a red tie with black pants and shoes. He spoke in a very respectful tone; I noticed when he repeated the question.

"Are you alright?" I was far from it but I didn't want to say anything, I nodded in response, when I did that I suddenly felt dizzy, I fell forward slightly, he caught me before I hit the ground.

I fought to keep conscious, my vision blurring in my eye then coming back again, it did this three times before clearing. I then noticed the expression on the man's face; it was of surprise and concern (although it kinda' looked like he was glaring). I suddenly felt nauseous again, I turned my head and through up blood on the pavement.

He then sighed and picked me up by putting his arm underneath my knees (which were now scraped from my falling on them) and his other arm behind my shoulders. He stood up, and then just as he started walking toward a nearby bench, a wave of fear came over me.

"Let go, let go!" I said loudly, I started thrashing, he put me down, even more surprise showing on his face. I stepped back; he frowned slightly and said,

"What's wrong?" I shook my head, I didn't know the answer.

I stepped even further back, stepping down from the curb on to the street.

"What are you doing?" I didn't answer him. I took more steps backward. He stepped forward, with his hands held out in front of him palm up showing me he had nothing in them and that he meant no harm, I was too scared at this point to register the gesture.

"Stay away… stay away, stay away!" each time I said it my voice gained in volume until I was screaming. His visible eye suddenly widened,

"Watch out!" he yelled, beginning to run toward me, I looked to the side a red pick-up truck was coming straight at me! I stood frozen in shock and pure undiluted terror.

Just then I was practically thrown half-way across the street by an unknown force, I further injured my knees as small granules of rock imbedded themselves into them . I heard a screech from behind me, then a sickening crack. My nostrils were met with the smell of blood; my eyes were shut tight against the pain. I opened them; there was the man lying on the street with the truck almost directly over him, the wheel of the truck was near his broken right leg; that was where the crack came from.

An image of my sister, lying in the same position went across my line of sight. I screamed

"Alexis!!!!" I kept shouting her name over and over, her death replaying endlessly, in my vision. The murder's face was sneering. He fingered the trigger of the gun pointing at me.

"NOOOOOOO!!!!" I screamed. I thrashed trying to get away, pain from an unknown source coursed through my head, my arms and everywhere.

I heard someone yelling franticly. I was too terrified to understand what was said. I continued to fight air desperately trying to escape the images that my brain conjured up as well as the pain. I then felt a prick on my left shoulder. I immediately felt weaker, as if my limbs were being filled with liquid lead, my screaming turned into a whimper, and my eyes drooped. I then fell unconscious.

0101010101010101010101010101010101

When I awoke I was lying in a hospital bed with my right hand, my knees and my side in a white gauze bandage, my left arm was hooked up too an IV, and what looked like a transfusion bag.

I groaned slightly, sitting up. My vision was blurred in my right eye and I couldn't focus on anything, all I saw were uncertain white shapes. I closed it and put my right hand over it, my left eye staring blankly at the unmovable black curtain in front of it,

_'What… happened???_' I thought.

"Oh, you're awake, good!" said a woman's voice somewhere in front of me. I let my hand drop (painfully) onto the mattress, and opened my right eye slowly; I still couldn't focus my vision, I closed both of my eyes. "Please be careful with your hand, we had to put stitches in it, it was really deep, you're actually lucky you didn't lose control of your fingers!" she said sounding happy,

_'Why… why does she sound… happy… about that... She must be a doctor or nurse or something because no one should sound happy about that… and why does she sound so… familiar?'_ I thought.

"Who are you?" I asked slowly, my voice was quiet, it hurt to talk.

"Oh, my name is Arisu Lynn; I'm a nurse, and your name is?" my eyes shot open and widened in shock,

"Mommy?" I said feebly, I sounded like a lost child, which was just what I was. I could barely make her out, I still couldn't see very well, but she was my mother alright, short light brown hair, blue eyes, petite, 5'1, and a kind heart shaped face. She was giving me a _very _confused look.

"I- What? I'm not your mother miss… What's your name?" said asked insistently, I laughed darkly and thought,

_'Idiot, she wouldn't recognize you the way you are now.'_

"Um, my name is…" I started to say, then I trailed off, I couldn't use my real name could I?

"What was that?" my mother asked sounding a little impatient.

'_Crap! What do I say; I can't use my real name! Um… oh! I know I just say I don't remember!'_ I thought franticly,

"My name is… Oh God… I can't remember!" I said theatrically,

_'I hope that didn't sound too forced'_

"Oh… really? That's okay I'm sure you'll remember, it's probably the tranquillizer that's interfering with your memory, but don't force yourself to remember." She said putting a warm hand on my shoulder.

"Un." I said nodding slightly,

"Will you open your eyes? I need to check them." I opened them; the vision in my right eye was still cloudy. She then shined a little light into my eyes and said "Try to fallow this light, but don't move your head, just your eyes." She started moving it but I couldn't tell exactly where, I couldn't fallow it, she moved it to the left side of my face where it disappeared then to the right where it was just a yellow-white blur, my eyes were staring blankly ahead. "Can you see the light?" she asked

"Yes, I can, but I can't tell where it is, so I can't fallow it, also I think I'm blind in my left eye I can't see anything out of it." I said honestly,

_ 'No point in lying they'd figure it out anyway'_ I thought mentally sighing.

"Hmm, what do you see out of your right eye?" she asked taking away the light and looking into my left eye more closely.

"Um, I can see but everything is blurred, and shapes and colors bleed together." I described motioning with my left hand to empathize.

"Hmm, I'm no optometrist so I don't know but we'll get that checked okay?"

"Okay… what happened?"

"Well someone called the ambulance and said that there had been an accident, we rushed to the scene, to find a man named Koujo Lin, his leg had been broken by a red truck, it was the driver who had called for the ambulance, you were on the other side of the street, on your back and screaming, you appeared to be fighting something, we couldn't waste time trying to calm you down so we tranquilized you and brought you here, to Shibuya General Hospital, you had many injuries and had lost a lot of blood we performed a transfusion and bandaged you up, that was 5 hours ago." She explained quickly.

"Ah…" I said

_'Oh'_ I thought _'that's what happened…' _

"The man, Koujo Lin you said? Is he alright?"

"Well… his leg appeared to be partly run over by the truck, it was in pretty bad shape but for the most part he's okay."

"Oh, that's good." I said relived

"Are you in any pain?" she asked me, back to the nurse script.

I flexed the fingers of my right hand, it stung like something awful, my left eye was also experiencing a dull pain.

"Nothing that I can't handle I'm pretty pain tolerant!" I said attempting to smile and failing miserably, I probably ended up looking like I was going to be sick.

"Alright, but let me know if you can't handle it, now if you'll excuse me I need to attend to other patients." She said turning to leave the dull, white hospital room.

"Oh, okay but if you see Koujo Lin tell him I'm sorry for breaking his leg." I said quickly before she was out of earshot.

"A-alright." She answered sounding confused. And with that my mother opened the door stepped out into the brightly lit hallway and shut it behind her.

_'Okay, Okay thinking time, what's my name? Family name, can't use mine, why not just use Tsukino, I mean I am in Lydia Tsukino's body right? Now a given name, should I use mine, probably not, it's rare in Japan, but it's still my name, I'll change the spelling a bit… A-L-E-X-A-N-D-R-I-A, I think should work… alright, my name is Alexandria Tsukino but I don't know what I'm going to do about everything else..._' I was starting to get a head ache I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose.

The hole that my sister's death left in my heart, started bleeding right at that moment

"Nee-Chan…" I mumbled to myself, tears rolled down my face, leaving little dark spots on the sheet, I eventually cried myself into exhausted sleep.

Nightmares plagued my sleep, just my sister's murder over and over and over again.

I awoke with a start, I slowly panicked where was I??? My memories filtered back in slowly, hospital, car accident, murder, blood, death… right… Crappy memories.

I took a deep breath and sighed slowly. Suddenly my door opened, it was at this point I realized I could see out of my right eye clearly, it was another nurse; this one had red hair and was a little plump.

"Oh, hello miss, how are you?"

"Um better, I can see out of my right eye now, and I remember my name, although not much else."

"What is your name?"

"Alexandria Tsukino."

"Hmm, how do you spell Alexandria?"

"Err, A-l-e-x-a-n-d-r-i-a."

"Thank you. Hold out your arm please."

"Okay, what for?" I asked holding out my uninjured arm

"I'm going to draw some blood so we can do DNA testing to see if we can get more information."

"Uh. Okay…" '_Crap, I didn't think of that!' _was the only thing I could think. She proceeded to do just that, I felt the pinch and the strange sensation of having my blood sucked out through my arm, it was over in 5 seconds, I had turned away, I couldn't stand watching as the needle broke my skin. She held the syringe upwards inspecting it; it was filled with the sickly red substance. She seemed satisfied with it because she then looked down at me, thanked me then left. _'Danm it! Now what do I do?'_

_'Who are you!?' _ A voice from inside my head called, it wasn't mine._ 'Who ARE you!?' _ It demanded again

_'Uh, I could ask you the same thing.'_

_'I asked you first, and besides you're the one in my body!' _

_'Tsukino-san?'_

_'Yes, now who are YOU!?'_

_'Alexzandria Lynn…'_

_'Humph'_

_'Tsukino-san, do you know what happened to you?'_

_'…, yes'_

_'Please tell me, you don't have to though.'_

_'No I'll tell you, because it seems I'm stuck here for the time being, and I feel… like I can trust you, strange huh?'_

_'Not at all, I've been told that many times.' _ At this point it occurred to me that I might have been going crazy, having a conversation inside my own head, but after everything that had happened to me in the last few hours, I could make an exception.

_'What'cha thinkin'?'_

_'I think I'm going crazy having a conversation with a voice in my head that answers back.'_

_'Heh heh ditto.'_

_'But in this case… I'll make an exception, right now it's a welcome distraction'_

_'Ha, yeah.'_

_'So, what happened?'_

_'Alright,' _she mentally sighed, preparing '_here goes, my name as you seem to already know is Lydia Tsukino, I'm 16 years old, and a second year in high school I'm in track, I'm actually first place on the girls team. My father is Jacob Tsukino, he is… an abusive son of bitch, he's absolutely nuts, and I think he killed my mother, by poisoning her, not whatever the doctors came up with!... anyway after he killed my mother he started hitting me and yelling, I was terrified, he threatened that if I ever told anyone he would kill an innocent person, I believed him, that was a year ago. then about 2 months ago, he upped the ante on his torture, he… would hang me upside down by my ankle and would whip me on my shoulders, that's where the scars are from, but the absolute worst torture he did was, well you know the scar on my back? It isn't just one scar, it's layered. First he put a scalding hot wire, burning it, they were like first degree when that healed he cut it with a serrated knife over and over just a little deeper each time, after that he did both, he would alternate doing those three things, it nearly killed me, the pain. After a month of that he lost it, he started getting paranoid, thinking that I had told someone, when I hadn't. He killed me by slashing my stomach, I died from blood loss. After that I don't remember anything, but now I can guess, he tried to bring me back, and it worked… sorta…'_

_'Oh my god… that's awful.' _ Was the only thing I could say.

_'So what about you, you are in my body so, my father must have done some sort of spell'_

_'…'_

_'Lynn-san?'_

_'I can't'_

_'Can't what?'_

_'Think about it, not now.'_

_'Alright just I will need to know eventually. I do have a right to know'_

_'Yes, eventually' _

Tears started streaming down my face; I covered it with my hands, and sobbed loudly. I physically felt Tsukino-san's concern, but she said nothing. I heard a click and a slight creak, I looked up, my vision blurry through the tears, it was the red-headed nurse.

"Oh, um, are you okay?"

"Yes." was all I could choke out.

"… well, there's a man named Kazuya Shibuya in the waiting room, he's… insisting that he speaks with you. Do you know him?"

"No. but I'll talk to him." I said wiping the tears off my face.

"Okay, I'll go get him." With that she promptly left the room.

_'Do you know him Tsukino-san?'_

_'No.' _

"Hmm…" I murmured.

Suddenly something occurred to me, what happened to my duffel bag?

_'Crap' _I thought

_'What?'_

_'My bag, it's not here…, if they look in it they'll find my wallet it has my school ID card in it…'_

_'Oh, danm!'_

Just then the red-headed nurse came back, with a insanely handsome guy behind her, he was kind of short for a guy, he wore all black, his hair was cut to his ears and was tousled in a I-don't-care sort of manor, his eyes were dark blue they were beautiful but they had an icy look, you couldn't tell what was behind them, his expression was the same.

"Tsukino-san?" he said, his voice was monotonous

"Yes?"

"Do you know a man named Koujo Lin?"

"Yeah, it was, uh my fault that he broke his leg"

"Yes it was," Both me and Tsukino-san were taken aback by his rudeness "and that being the case after they release you, I need you to work for me."

"But you don't even know me!" I half shouted.

"I talked to the doctor he said that you don't remember anything is that true?"

"Uh, yes, nothing except my name."

"Then you don't know you either. You look fairly capable and I need another assistant, since _you_ injured one of them."

'_Whoa, this guy's all over the place!' _I thought, surprised

_'Yeah, no kidding!' _Tsukino-san added.

_'Wait Lin-san looked around 28, but this guy can't be any older than 18… Lin-san works for someone like,10 years younger than him?'_

"Um, seeing as if I were to say no you would make me say yes anyways, I accept." He smirked then said

"Yes I _would _win in a battle of words. Oh and by the way the nurse told me to give this to you." He then turned around and grabbed a black duffel bag off the floor,

_'Wait that's my…'_

"Oh! Thank you very much!" he smirked and put the bag on the counter next to the bed. He then fished around in his black trench coats pocket until he found a piece of paper, he gave it to me then left, his coat billowing slightly behind him, his holier-than-thou aura left as well. I looked at the paper on it were directions to… Shibuya Psychic Research? Then scrawled in the corner written rather neatly was, 'when you get out of the hospital call me at the number on the back of this paper, we will discuss what your work schedule is then'

'_Geez, he's seems sort of workaholic doesn't he?' _asked Tsukino-san rhetorically, I agreed with her, little did I know that he was _much_ more than that.


	3. Part 3:A New Job?

Here's chapter 3, and again I ask that you review!!!!! (Please?)

The New Assistant

Part 3: A New Job?

They released me from the hospital 1 day after the accident; I paid the bill out of pocket I was surprised when they didn't questions about Tsukino-san's scars, they also told me to come back in, in two days to see the results of my blood work. They gave me pain killers for my bruises, my hand was in a thick white bandage, it made my fingers hard to move. My first line of business was to get a place to stay; I had enough money to get an apartment. I ended up getting a place not that far from where the Shibuya Psychic Research office (supposedly) was, in Dogenzaka.

Tsukino-san was quiet most of the time but I felt her mind separate from my own, she was thinking hard about something. When I asked her about it she said it was nothing, but you can't think _that _hard about nothing… right?

When I told the landlord that I was 16 he was surprised

"Hmm, you seem much older." He had said, then he told me that there was another 16 year old girl, living in the complex and that the apartment I was renting was right next to her's. I told him thanks and he gave me forms to fill out and look at and the key. He smiled at me, bowed and left.

I entered the apartment, it was small and shoebox shaped, there was a kitchen area to my right and a bathroom to my left, strait ahead was a multipurpose room, there was a small entry way were I was standing, it was square and had a step up to the main floor. I realized that I didn't have any at home slippers, or bathroom ones for that matter. I stood there trying to figure out what to do; finally, I sighed and took my converse off, and stepped up into the apartment. Tsukino-san mentally cringed; I sighed and said out loud

"I'm sorry Tsukino-san but I don't have any slippers."

_'I know, but it just goes against how I was raised'_

"Me too."

I explored the small apartment, after five minutes I knew where everything was, "alright time to call Shibuya-san." I muttered, I took my cell phone out of my duffel bag, it had about half a charge on it, I leaned against the kitchen counter and dialed the number from memory,

_Ring_

_"Hello?" _said a man's voice

"Shibuya-san? It's Alexandria Tsukino"

_"You're out of the hospital?"_

"Yes, they released me today with pain medication."

_"I see. Can you start tomorrow?"_

"I think so, yes."

_"Be here at eight, do not be late."_

"Yes sir" he hung up with a click. I pulled the phone from my ear and stared at it for a second before snapping it shut. I sighed and sank down to the floor, I tucked my knees in, and wrapped my arms around them, and then I rest my head upon them. I was so tired, I closed my eyes. After about 5 minutes I fell asleep.

010101010101010101010101001010101

_My dreamscape was black, my spirit was floating in it, I couldn't tell up from down. There were little white lights floating around, upwards, other spirits. One of the lights floated towards me and materialized into Tsukino-san._

_"Hey" I greeted_

_"Hi, you must have been really tired, that's the quickest I've ever seen someone fall asleep!"_

_"Yeah I was… I guess our dreams are connected huh?"_

_"Seems like…Lynn-san?"_

_"Yes?" I said slightly taken aback by her abruptness _

_"Will you call me by my first name? Tsukino-san is just too reserved."_

_"Um sure but you have to call me Andrea"_

_"Deal." She walked to me and stuck out her hand, I shook it once then released it, I gave her a small smile, which she returned, with a toothy grin._

1010101010101010101010101010101010101

I awoke slowly, I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, and yawned loudly, I stretched my arms up above head cracking my elbows and wrists. My cell phone was in my left hand, I checked the time, it was 17:03 PM. I stood up slowly trying to avoid aggravating the bruises on my side. My breath hitched, Ow, failure.

_'Hey Lydia-san?'_

_'Yeah?'_

_'This kind of random but, do you feel my pain, my physical pain I mean?'_

_'Faintly. All though I feel your emotional pain just as strongly as my own, but separate.'_

_'Oh… hmm' _I scrunched my eyebrows in thought, then shrugged my shoulders passing it up as a moot point.

"I need to get food…" I muttered to myself, my stomach grumbled in agreement, I hadn't had anything to eat since… well really crappy hospital food. With that I grabbed my wallet, and put on my sweatshirt, I put it in my pocket, I grabbed the key off the counter and walked back to the entryway, I put my converse back on and left the apartment, locking the door behind me.

I made my way to a convenience store and bought about ten packets of instant ramen, and a blow-up mattress to sleep on, I asked the store clerk if there was an electronics store within walking distance, he said there was one around the corner, I thanked him and left.

I walked to the electronics store and looked around for a cell phone charger that would work for mine; I had to ask the clerk on duty for help. He was a young guy, maybe 15, he tried flirting with me, but I shot him down by telling him I wasn't interested in dating, but that didn't stop him from trying…

I then went back to the apartment, set up the mattress, made a package of ramen, set my alarm for 7:00 AM, and tried to sleep.

0101010010101010100101010101

I was so tried that I had no dreams that night as I slept; I woke up to the blaring of my cell phone alarm.

"Great time to get ready for work…_even though I have no idea what that entails…_" I muttered to myself

_'I can't believe you just randomly accepted a job from a guy you don't even know!'_

_'In case you forgot I didn't exactly willingly accept this job, he pressured me into it!'_

_'Oh yeah…'_

After getting ready (and had some of my medication) I made another package of ramen for breakfast… Heh, not healthy eating I know, but I didn't have enough patience (or time) to prepare anything else. As I sat on the floor eating it I started guessing what Shibuya-san did, maybe… I couldn't think of anything. I sighed; I guess I would just have to find out.

01010101010101010101010101010101

"Good you're here on time, come to my office." A voice said as I walked into the Shibuya Psychic Research office building, the entire place smelled like black tea. The door was metal painted brown, in the frosted glass window written in gold cursive lettering, were the letters SPR, underneath that was the full title, written in the same font.

"Yes sir." I called back

_'He doesn't even say please!' _thought Lydia-san annoyed.I took my sweatshirt off and hung it on the coat rack next to the door. The floor was purple tile, there was a waiting area (I assumed) outlined by a blue-green carpet. There were two black couches, facing each other, separated by a light colored coffee table, there was a black arm chair facing a way from the window at the end of the coffee table, at the other end was a black foot stool. Shelves lined the walls, I couldn't read any of the small print on the spines of the books on them, but from what I could see by squinting, they were in English. I turned to my left; there was a door, on it read "Manager's Office", I walked up to it and knocked.

"Come in Tsukino-san." Called Shibuya-san's commanding baritone voice. I grasped the knob with my uninjured hand and turned, the door creaked open as I pushed it, and there seated in a black high backed chair, in front of a cherry wood desk, was Kazuya Shibuya. He had a book in his hands it looked like the ones lining the walls of the entire office. I made out the title, _"The Parapsychology Revolution: A Concise Anthology of Paranormal and Psychical Research"_

_'Geez, that's a long title, those are the books he reads in his free time?!' _muttered Lydia-san in shock. I suppressed a giggle, Shibuya-san narrowed his eyes a fraction.

"Tsukino-san, have you figured out what I do yet?"

"Uh, no I haven't." he smirked, then said

"I ghost hunt." He said with faintest hint of a large amount of pride. I twitched my eye brows in confusion "in other words I research paranormal phenomena at specific locations that a client specifies and take action accordingly."

_'Huh.' _Lydia huffs, I sense her surprise. I on the other hand was just puzzled, and didn't know what to think.

"I see you're surprised."

"Not really, I just… don't know what to think." I said; my right hand underneath my chin. His eyes narrowed slightly again.

"Now, I don't currently have a case so you will work out of the office, you will be required to do administrative jobs and to file papers, and also do you know how to use a computer?"

"Yes."

"Good then if anybody comes in you will take note of what they say on the laptop in Lin-san's office."

"Yes sir."

"I'm assuming you remember how to make tea?"

"Uh…" I said, it's not that I didn't remember, I didn't know how, neither of my parents drunk tea much, but when they did they made it for themselves, Alexis and Dylan and me hated it.

_'Oh really? I know how!' _ Said Lydia-san fairly cheerful

_'Thank god, Shibuya-san looks (and smells) like a rabid tea addict.'_

_'Got that right…' _ Shibuya-san, taping his pointer finger on his black clad shoulder, was impatiently waiting for an answer.

"Uh. Yes I do." He smirked (again)

"Then go bring me a cup." He demanded.

_'Not even a please, it's not even Andrea-san's tea.' _ Lydia-san grumbled.

_'I can hear you.'_

_'I know!... But still stupid disrespectful narcissist guy…'_

_'How do you know he's a narcissist?'_

_'His energy, it just screams 'I'm king of the World and everyone should bow down to me' so there for I'm dubbing him as…' _she thought for a while, while I made my way to the kitchenette that I noticed while briefly exploring the office._ 'Naru! Naru the narcissist!'_

_'Great.' _I said sarcastically _'So, how do you make tea?'_

01010101101010101010101010101010

I delivered Naru-chan's ( as Lydia-san dubs him, the name suits him well) tea to his office, he didn't look up from his book when I placed it next to him, I waited a few seconds for him to thank me, when I realized he wasn't going to, I turned to leave

"Tsukino-san, the paper's on Lin's desk need filing."

"Yes sir." I said pausing in my deflated steps out of his office, I turned, bowed then actually left.

Filling the papers was harder than I'd anticipated it to be, many of the paper's were in foreign European languages, I recognized German, I could actually read I and speak it, one of my few close friends was German and she taught it to me, but the other languages were a bit confusing it was hard to tell the difference between Italian and Spanish sometimes and French was just… ? (No offence to French people). Some were in Chinese as well I couldn't read those, or the ones in Vietnamese (or Arabic, or Taiwanese, or... you get the picture) Since I couldn't sort the by title I sorted by language.

_'Hey Lydia-san?' _I asked at one point

_'Yeah?'_

_'Can you read or speak another language fluently?'_

_'Well, I know a bit of English from what I learned in school, but other than that no.'_

_'Hmm.'_

An hour and a half later I was done.

_'Geez I never appreciated the card catalogue at the international library in my house enough'_

_'You have a library in your house?'_

_'Yeah.'_

_'!' _I felt her surprise and amusement

_'What you don't?' _ I asked jokingly

_'Do you seriously think that normal people have libraries in their homes?'_

_'No, Of course not'_

The rest of the day went by agonizingly slow, but at least Lydia-san was there to crack sarcastic comments about whatever Naru-chan sent us to do (please note that I would never call him that to his face) but the weird was he only asked for tea once, but the entire office smelled like it and Shibuya-san does not seem like a one cup a day kind of guy… maybe he didn't like Lydia-san's tea?...

When Naru finally told us that we could leave I was about to stab myself on a tea spoon, (Lydia-san was too), I internally celebrated, he seemed to notice this then said,

"You're not done after one day, come in on Sunday, your hours are the same."

"Yes sir."

010101010101010101010101010101

_Sunday_

I again woke up to the blaring of my cell phone alarm. Saturday was spent getting stuff for the apartment. I felt Lydia-san groan in the annoyance of being woken up, I chuckled lightly as I threw the covers off my body. My bruises were healing, as was the cut on my hand, after work I had to go back to the hospital for blood test results, I didn't know what would happen if the blood was confirmed as Lydia-san's, I tried not to let it bother me too much. I felt like running to work that day, so I did.

I burst through the door breathing hard.

"You weren't even late you know." Came Naru-chan's smug voice,

"I know, I just felt like getting some exercise, because whoever I was before was definitely a runner!" I said pausing in between every few words to breath. I was met with tea smelling silence for the rest of the day.

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_After Work_

I walked as slowly as possible on the way to the hospital; I didn't want this life of ours to end (even though it was only four days long) . I eventually and inevitability got there. I walked into the lobby, the sterile smell meeting my nostrils,

_'It's not that the smell itself is bad it's just what associated with it is.' _ I thought in a sad tone. I felt Lydia-san agree with me, but she was distant and depression was rolling off of her in waves, her energy was also erratic. I forlornly walked up to the front desk,

"Hello, I'm here for an appointment…" the young women working at the desk looked up from her computer.

"Okay, and your name is…?"

"Alexandria Tsukino." She clacked my alias into the computer

"okay go to the lab, and state your request there they'll get you in then."

"Thank you very much." I said bowing deeply despite my bruises. I turned on my heel and headed towards what I thought was the end… of something or other.

The sterile smell of the lab waiting room was not enough to cover up the different substances that they studied, most noticeably blood. Another young woman was stationed behind the desk; she was tapping two pencils rhythmically on a brown file folder. Her eyes were closed; she was focused on her tapping. She then went up and started tapping on the wire cup that held pens and pencils with one hand then went to her coffee mug in front of her in some sort of ring around the rosy pencil tapping drum solo, I smiled slightly; she had a good sense of rhythm.

"Hello I have an appointment." I said trying to keep the dread out of my voice. She looked up but continued tapping

"Alexandria Tsukino?" she asked never faltering in her drumming.

"Yes."

"Wait in one of the chairs the doctor will get you shortly."

"… You're pretty good at that." I said in a rare moment (for me) of conversation starting confidence.

"What? Oh thanks, I drum professionally; this is just a day job."

"Oh really, are you in a band?"

"Yes, the 'Shibuya Psychic Rockers' we're pretty popular if I do say so myself." She said proudly. The Shibuya Psychic Rockers were Lexie's favorite local band, her personal favorite member was 'Noriko' the bassist. She did never did tell me their real name or even if they were a guy or a girl...

"Oh really? I think I've seen posters and advertisement for you guys. So where did the name come from?"

"Well one of our members is an ex-monk from Mt. Koya, he suggested it since he is psychic and it stuck, we used to be just 'Shibuya rockers'."

"huh… uh I heard about a 'Noriko' who are they?"

"Oh, that's our bassist Housho Takigawa's nickname in the band we also occasionally call him Bou-san as well, he's the monk from Mt. Koya."

"Oh. Huh."

"So Alexandria Tsukino-san was it?"

"Yes"

"I'm Yuuki Hanabusa, nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

"Tsukino-san?" said a man's voice to my right,

"Yes?"

"Please follow me." I looked; it was a man about 40 years old in a standard white lab coat. I quickly said bye to Hanabusa-san then followed him to a room with shelves of vials; almost all were filled with something or other. "Tsukino-san how old are you, do you remember?"

"Uh I think I'm about 16…"

"Hmm, well your blood test's results are in. we found something… rather strange…" he paused and trailed off.

"What did you find?" I asked desperately to keep my voice monotonous, my fists were clenched tightly, the wound on my right hand stinging from the pressure.

"Well, we couldn't find any DNA, there was no other sample in the data base, it's like you didn't exist." I stood open mouthed in shock, Lydia-san was frozen in it.

"Really?" I asked in a quiet voice.

"Yes, We inputted it into the computer, in case you need to get a blood transfusion or they need your data."

"Oh, okay." I didn't know what to say.


	4. Part 4: Home

Hello all, umm… Wow it's been a long time hasn't it? sorry…. However, now that it is summer I'll be able to write more, but I won't make any false promises though. To those of you who have favorited and/or reviewed, you have my upmost gratitude; now on with the story!

The New Assistant

Part 4: Home

I was staring in shock at the floor, my mouth agape, Lydia-san was frozen, her mind had stopped.

_'Why, why, how did our blood change, it should be yours… Lydia-san…?'_

_ '!' _ Was all she could manage.

"Do you remember anything else Tsukino-san?" asked the doctor

"I uh… not really, Just some random pop culture."

"Hmm okay, thanks for coming in today if you remember anything else call this number." He said handing me a business card.

"Okay, thank you." I turned and left as quickly as I could, as if he would call me back and say he was joking.

When we got back to the apartment some of the shock had worn off, I was taking out the key when suddenly the door to my left opened and out stepped a girl, she had brown hair, shoulder length and strait, she was about 20 centimeters shorter than me and she was wearing a green half sweatshirt with a pink shirt underneath and a light purple skirt that reached to just above her knees, she noticed me

"Oh, uh hi?" her eyes were a pleasant cinnamon color.

"Hi, I'm new here so that might be why you don't recognize me."

"Oh, good, knowing me I probably wouldn't have noticed that I had a neighbor until you had been living here for like a year." She said rubbing the back of her head with one hand guiltily.

"It's fine, as for introductions I'm Alexandria Tsukino, feel free to call me Andrea."

"Mai Taniyama, you can call me Mai, everybody does." she said with an undertone of annoyance

"Nice to meet you."

"Um... do you have parents? I mean these apartments are a little small..."

"Uh, I don't know, more accurately I don't remember." Shock crossed her face

"You have amnesia!"

"Well I know my name, about how old I am, the Japanese language obviously and some random pop culture, but not much else…"

"Hmm, well I hope you remember soon." The sincerity in her voice surprised me, she had just met me and yet, she cared so much.

"Yeah, me too…" a pause "Hey I sort of want to finish high school… do know of any schools were the tuition is really small… or free?" I asked, it was a sort of spur of the moment thing, and I realized I did want to finish school; Lexie would have wanted it.

"Well… my school lets me go free and they let me take off for work, but I'm not sure if it's just me or not."

"Oh, what's your school?"

"Sakuranbo High School; it's in the Hiroo district." I felt a pang of surprise from Lydia-san

_'That's my school, that's why she seems familiar!'_ she shouted in my mind. I was tempted to raise my eyebrows, but resisted, it didn't belong in the conversation. Submitting the name to memory I said,

"Great, thanks."

"No problem!" She smiled, it lit up her face and warmed her eyes, just looking at it reminded me of Alexis, her smile was exactly like that. My mood darkened almost visibly, I saw Mai-san's concern and felt Lydia-san's.

_ '" Are you okay?"' _Lydia-san and Mai-san asked at the same time.

"Yeah." I said feigning a smile; I knew that neither of them believed me, but they didn't say anything more

"See you later Andrea-san." Mai-san smiled again and waved, once again the smile was like Lexie's.

_'And Lydia-san's' _I thought to myself. In the four days we had been together, we had pretty much figured out how to communicate telepathically, when we thought we could choose to send it to the other or not.

"Yeah, see ya'" I said doing a mock salute, I then turned and opened the door to our apartment; I closed the door behind me and locked it. I put the key in my pocket. I then leaned my back against the door and sank down. A wave of pure exhaustion had passed over me, after a few minutes of fazing in and out of consciousness, I passed out.

_ Once again my dreamscape was black, with white spirits floating aimlessly around; I stood up and brushed myself off. _

_ 'I wonder where Lydia-san is, she usually shows up around now.' I thought/said. I looked around looking for any sign of her; there was none. I sighed. _

_ 'Great she's not here.' I said, I don't know why it didn't occur to me to call out but that's dream logic for ya' I guess… I walked in the darkness; hands in my pockets, taking a peaceful solace in it, my worries were nonexistent there._

_ 'Andrea-san where are you!' a voice called out to me emanating from somewhere behind me, I turned around I saw a white glow getting closer as time passed at a dreamlike pace. _

_ The glow turned out to be Lydia-san, she was breathing rather evenly for running so far (or so my dream self thought)._

_ "There you are, geez don't go running of like that please!" she said pointing a finger at me accusingly._

_ "Fine, fine I won't… maybe." I said playfully, grabbing my wrist with my other hand behind my back and turning around._

_ "Oi!" she said loudly, I smirked slightly. _

_ At that moment my buried memories decided to materialize around us, their first destination; my family's home, the mansion from the outside was large to say the very least. My father was a rich Canadian business-man that fell in love with my mother when she took a trip to Canada to see the northern lights, and one 70's style love story later they got married and had my Onii-san Dylan, then me and Lexie two and a half years later._

_ We were standing in the courtyard, Greek style fountain heads spiting water sluggishly into fountains that had a little algae growing on the bottom were strewn around in a sort of diamond pattern._

_ "Whoa, nice place." Said Lydia-san looking around_

_ "Yeah, thanks." I said trying to keep a sarcastic tone out of my voice. She stopped looking around and focused a rather knowing gaze at me,_

_ "I see, this is where the thing you can't think about happened." she said knowingly. Her eyes glazed over; she was thinking. After a timeless moment she returned to herself and sighed blinking slowly, she grabbed my left wrist. It was then I realized I was me again, in our shared dreams we had our rightful appearances, that being so she towered over me in height. She dragged me closer to the doors of my mansion. I DID NOT want to go in there; I had made a great effort to get away. I knew it was just a dream but even so I struggled in vain against Lydia-san's vice like grip._

_ "Andrea-san we're going in there, we have to get past this and I have to know what happened!" Lydia-san yelled at me pulling harder still. I stopped in my struggles, she was right._

_ We reached the grand double doors, there were apple and vine engravings covering the surface. She released my wrist and looked expectantly at me, I realized she wanted me to let her in; it was my former home after all. I put my hand on the door knob to the right one and with movie like dramatic-ness; I pulled open the door, a blinding white light streamed out penetrating the still dark surroundings. I shut the door, the light was painful._

_ "I guess the time for you to know is not now." I said._

_ "Yeah… sure…" she said narrowing her eyebrows and almost glaring at the door. _

_ The dream decided to end itself there, everything faded to black me and Lydia-san looked at each other. Underneath the emerald color of her eyes was the fear and pain of what she had lived, died then lived again through; haunted, I knew mine also held a haunted look._

When I woke up I was in my entryway still, my injuries ached from being in a contorted position for so long. Using the floor for support I gingerly stood up.

"Ow…" I groaned. I glanced at the watch on my right wrist, I had purchased it on Saturday, it said 21:16. "Great I've been out for four hours…" I muttered to myself. I was still tired beyond belief and I was on the verge of passing out again, I stumbled to my mattress and without even bothering to take my shoes off I fell asleep.

The sun woke me up the next morning, it searching rays reaching my eyelids; I raised my arm and took a look at the watch, 6:30A.M

"Uh…" I groaned stretching my arms above my head, cracking my elbows and wrists. I put one of my hands on my forehead, I had a killer headache, and my various injuries hurt worse than usual, most predominantly my slashed hand. The pain in it suddenly spiked, I shot up into a sitting position and clutched at it with my other hand, I bit my lip to keep from making any noise. I rocked back and forth as it burned

_'Andrea-san?' _ I was in too much pain to answer even in my thoughts _'Andrea! Are you okay!' _ I shook my head vigorously, by doing so I let go of my now bleeding lip, I let out a strangled scream. After a few more agonizing moments the pain finally let up. I released my hand, by griping it so hard the blood circulation had been cut off. Blood (now rushing back to my hand to give it oxygen) was staining the bandage red, the cut had reopened.

"Shit." I muttered to my self

_'Andrea-san are you okay?'_

"I think so… Lydia-san?"

_'Yes?'_

"Just call me Andrea, please."

_'…okay. Andrea you should go to the hospital, it's probably not good that that cut reopened…'_

"Its fine, and besides I have stuff I have to get done today."

_'Andrea…' _Lydia-san was generally concerned.

"It's fine… I'm fine." She was not convinced.

_Half an hour later…_

I got on a bus headed for the Hiroo district; the bus was rather empty for a Monday morning. Fifteen minutes later I got off and consulted Lydia-san where the school was, she said it wasn't far. As I was walking I saw a girl in a high school uniform; it had a white-brown jacket with a black skirt, leggings, and collar. The collar was trimmed with white it also had a large red bow tie in the front. She looked behind her to inspect something, it was Mai-san!

"Mai-san, good morning!" I yelled across the street, she jumped then looked, almost frantically around until she spotted me and waved, I ran across the street and caught up with her.

"Morning. Andrea-san, what you doing here?"

"I'm here to apply for your school actually."

"Oh, right you wanted to do that!"

"Yeah I thought about it, did some research and it turns out that your school is the only one that offers help to those not well off in the area so it seemed like the best option, and I already know you so, I got a start with the social aspect."

_'Liar' _said Lydia-san playfully

_'I know.' _ I thought back.

"So, did you miraculously remember anything over night?"

"Um, no not really…" I don't know why but at that moment I suddenly felt extremely guilty for lying to her, she really was concerned. She seemed to pick up on it because then she said,

"Oh, I'm sorry I asked…" as she said this though I sensed an undercurrent in her energy, it was of sadness.

"It's fine… are you okay?" her eyes widened slightly, she wasn't expecting my perceptiveness

"Uh, yeah I'm fine."

"Okay… you know Mai-san you can talk to me if you need to, I mean I know we just met and stuff but I'll be willing to listen…" she smiled at me then bowed her head slightly

"Thank you, but I'm fine."

Sometimes, I wanted all people on earth to just disappear, one of the reasons is people are always lying even if they don't mean to, just like Mai-san, something had happened in her past to cause the constant undertone of sadness that surrounded her, but the fact that people lie about their feelings is also one of the reasons I cherish others, she was lying because she didn't want to worry me, and besides, I had done the same thing to her and Lydia-san yesterday, so maybe I was just being hypocritical.

_'Me too… Andrea try and get her to tell us what happened in her past, I have a feeling she could help us heal, and we could help her too.' _ Said Lydia-san, she had sensed the drift of my thoughts.

_'Yeah but I think gaining her trust is not going to be an easy task.'_

_ 'Right.'_

As we were talking I had forgotten about Mai-san, she was looking at me curiously, the sad aura around her had lessened to the point that it was barely discernible from the kind everyday life brings.

She noticed I had returned to myself.

"What were you thinking about?"

"I was trying to remember."

"Any success?"

"No not really, just flashes and fuzzy faces."

"Oh." She scrunched her eyebrows together.

Our conversation was at standstill, but it didn't matter as a building with a sign sporting the words 'Sakuranbo Senior High School' was rapidly approaching. The building was large and had at least 5 floors, there was a large clock claiming it was 7:12 A.M. the entire front was covered in windows and from what I could see of the sides they were too. I glanced to my right, there was a giant field with a big patch of dirt in the center; maybe a building used to be there.

_'They finally finished cleaning up huh… I guess it's too dangerous to build anything there now…' _said Lydia-san

'_What do you mean?'_

_ 'well, actually there used to be an old school building there, and they wanted to knock it down so they could build a new gym, but when they were trying to demolish it, seemingly unexplained accidents kept happening and rumors that it was haunted spread and demolition stopped, then the principal hired several psychic investigators to-' _I cut her off

_'Investigate?'_

_ 'yes' _she was too engrossed in telling me what happened to be annoyed _'anyway they discovered that the building used to be a medical school or hospital for the war, so it was being haunted by spirits of that time. They exorcised them, then left. Then one day it collapsed without warning from ground subsidence, which was also a factor in the accidents.' _

_ 'Really?' _ I thought skeptically

_'Yep, that's what I heard.'_

_ 'hmm, something seems off about that story…' _

_ 'Which part seems off?'_

_ 'Well I did some research on the area, because I was bored one summer break, and I'm pretty sure there was nothing about this area being bombed during the war…and something tells me that the story is being used to cover up something else, but I can't be sure… seems I've certainly got my hands full right Lydia-san?'_

_ 'With what?'_

_ 'Gaining Mai-san's trust and figuring out the truth… maybe I can ask Mai-san to help me...' '_No with things like these I work better alone_.' _I thought the last part to myself, one of the tricks in telepathic speech; you had to mentally send it to the person in order for them to hear you. As we walked through the gates a loud bell sounded.

"Damn I'm late again…" I heard Mai-san mutter to herself.

"Sorry… I'll find the principal's office on my own; you get to class Mai-san."

"What? No I'll take you there, besides he might excuse me for being late if help you."

"… I'm hurt Mai-chan, you only want to help me to avoid being late? You're cruel!" I teased lightly.

"What, no! I want to help you." I smirked at her reaction.

"Mai-san its fine I was kidding."

"Oh…"

She led me through a series of hallways until we reached a door proclaiming itself as the main office.

"I'll go in with you."

"Okay… Mai-san, thank you."

"It's fine." She said dismissing it with a wave of her hand. A strange look passed over her face then "Andrea-san, do you have any siblings or any that you remember?"

"Not that I know of, why?"

"I can't shake the feeling that I've seen you before…"

_'Shit!' _Lydia-san exclaimed,

_'This is Lydia-san's old school, so of course people would recognize her.' _I thought to myself

"I'm pretty sure we've never met Mai-san, because if we had I would have remembered someone like you, I'm sure off it." Another wave of guilt passed over me; if I was trying to get her to trust me, shouldn't I trust her first? I should at least trust her enough to tell her what happened to me.

Mai-san blushed slightly; I could tell she was flattered by what I said.

"Thank you, that's kind of you Andrea-san."

"I mean it Mai-san."

"I know." Something about how she said that made me wonder if she really _did_ know.

There was a desk secretary sitting boredly behind a giant plastic sheet covered counter, she was wearing a dark blue blouse and an over sized red pendent necklace. She looked up and noticed us.

"Oh hello, Mai Taniyama wasn't it?"

_'Most secretaries I know don't care to memorize people's names…' _I thought

_ 'Or faces… I hope nobody recognizes me.' _Thought Lydia-san worriedly

_ 'Were you popular at all?'_

_ 'Um no, I wasn't, people thought I was crazy, and people avoided me because I broke the rules all the time. I heard people call me "that Goth bitch" more than once."_

_ 'Huh, doesn't match you Lydia-san, what did you do?'_

_ '… … I didn't wear the uniform, it was too revealing, not to mention I hate skirts with a burning passion, and I have scars all over including on my legs and wrists.'_

_ '…I'm sorry…' _I didn't know why I apologized at the time, but it was that I subconsciously blamed myself for everything.

_'You have nothing to be sorry for Andrea; you had nothing to do with me before this.'_

"Yep hi, Yamamoto-san"

"What can I do for you girls?"

"I need to apply for an entrance exam for a second year student, please." I said bowing slightly out of habit.

"Okay, you will need to talk with the principal. What is your name?"

"Alexandria Tsukino, Is he available?" she jot down my name on a form that I assumed was the entrance application

"Yep after the morning announcements are done… Taniyama-san you know you are late to homeroom right?"

"Yes, I know, I'm helping Andrea-san get into this school." Yamamoto-san filled out more information on the form then handed it to me.

"Okay fill this out then talk to the principal."

"Yes ma'am" I sat down in a chair next to the door, I filled out the application with as much truth as I could muster. But I would have to remember what I wrote if I didn't want to be found out.

About five minutes later a bell tone sounded and the voice of a middle-aged man was heard throughout the school. I zoned him out, staring at a _very _interesting piece of paper that had fallen on the floor; it was crumpled slightly and was very white (it contrasted with the machine gray carpet). I imagined kicking it through the open door into the garbage can under the announcement board. (Test scores were up already). The announcement ended about a minute after it started.

"Neh, Mai-san what you get on your exams?"

"Eh? Um I wasn't here to take them; I was working for that week." I was going to ask her what her job was when Yamamoto-san called over to us.

"Taniyama-san, Tsukino-san, the principal will see you now."

"_Arigatou gozaimasu." _I said nodding my head in respect.

We walked into the principal's office; it reminded me of Naru-chan's, big desk, papers, laptop, and a high backed leather chair. The only thing that wasn't like Naru-chan's was the absence of Naru himself and countless books on paranormal research.

The principal was an elderly man with gray hair and dark brown eyes, there were wrinkles around his mouth and eyes, I hoped they were smile wrinkles.

"Ah, so I heard you want apply for this school?" he said to me

"Yes sir. That's correct."

"Hmm, you look familiar; did you have a sister that went here?"

"No, this is the first time I've ever stepped foot in this building." And it was true.

"Do you have your parent's permission to apply for yourself?"

"… I don't know who my parents are."

"Oh, well how about a grandparents or siblings?"

"No I have no one, or at least none that I remember; I live alone and provide for myself." I said as stoic as possible.

"You have amnesia?" he asked raising an eyebrow

"Yes"

"I will need to see medical records, and a doctor's note."

"I have the medical records and the results of my blood work with me" I said indicating the black shoulder bag I had brought; just in case. I pulled out a light brown file folder (I had stolen it from Naru-chan) labeled "medical records" written in black sharpie (I had stolen that too) and handed it to him.

"Here."

"Thank you." He scanned over it for a few seconds then set it on his desk.

"I will look over these in detail later, now Taniyama-san why are you here?"

Mai-san snapped out of her reverie when she heard her name.

"Oh, um I was going to help Tsukino-san but it seems she doesn't need it…" she said rather sheepishly.

"Head to class Taniyama-san I will call your teacher to excuse you."

"Thank you Nakagawa-kouchou!" said Mai-san happily, and with that she half skipped out of the room in happiness.

Nakagawa-kouchou chuckled then became very serious.

"Tsukino-san, why did you choose this school?"

"I need to finish high school and I'm at the beginnings of friendship with Taniyama-san."

"I see, well you have to take an entrance exam to see what grade you would be in."

"I know, I'm prepared."

"Can you do it tomorrow?"

"Um I'll have to ask my boss if I can get off early but I think so, what time?"

"Noon?"

"Yep I'll be here."

"Shibuya-san can I ask you something?" I said when I walked into the office the next day. Hey looked up from his laptop.

"You just did." I felt a twinge of annoyance.

"May I take off early today? I have an entrance exam."

"... What time?"

"Noon."

"... Fine but the lost hours are out of your pay."

"Yes sir." I said nodding my head. "Thank you," I said earnestly, I took a couple of steps backwards then turned and rushed out of the office, making sure to grab my sweat shirt on the way out. I rushed to the train station in an attempt to do… something. I think I just wanted to run at the time, but I'm not sure.

_'Geez what's the rush Andrea?' _thought Lydia-san in semi happiness.

_'I don't know I'm just excited for some reason….'_ I thought indeed I felt excited, the kind of anticipation that a young child might have at the prospect of getting candy. Then I realized, maybe it was because my injuries didn't hurt anymore, my heart might still have been a gaping hole, but just having Lydia-san inside made me feel light and happy. 'Lydia-san I think I'm happy, at least for now. I haven't felt this way for years, and you're to blame, so I thank you'

_'You _mus_t__ been in a good mood, your happiness is infectious!_' she exclaimed, I just smiled widely in glee.

Just then my cell phone rang;

_Völlig losgelöst von der Erde  
schwebt das raumschiff völlig schwerel-_

I answered;

"Hello?"

"Andrea? Oh my god... Are you okay where are you?" it was my mom… I felt the phone slip through my fingers; it landed with a crack on the pavement. I fell to my knees. I picked up the phone with shaking fingers

".. I'm sorry miss you've got the wrong number please don't call me again.. ever." With that I pressed the "end" button; I let out a shaking breath.

The happiness I had felt was gone, like a small fire in winter. I could almost hear my mind breaking, my heart was an empty space that would never fill back in… I was breaking down, right there, right then. I felt another attack coming on. Until…

"Hey ojou-san you okay?" asked a baritone voice. I look up with clouded vision, a sandy haired man with a ponytail and a cowboy hat was looking at me with concern. He had a guitar case across his back. I felt confused for a few seconds I just couldn't put a coherant sentence together in my head, in any of the three languages that I knew.

"I uhh, I'm okay… I think… mabye not." I finally managed to say. I slapped my phone shut and stood up using my uninjured hand to assist. "Thank you for your concern Mister, but I think I'm okay; I'll be fine." He was also wearing sunglasses, so I coudn't see his eyes. But he looked rather sekptical. "Really." I assured. He just nodded

"Alright, take care of yourself ojou-san." He said then walked off, with his hands in his tan trench coat's pockets. I sighed then laughed breathlessly,

'_I seem to a bit of a magnet for caring people.' _ I thought to myself. I smiled self mockingly then stared ahead at the tracks, waiting for my train.

I flipped up my phone. How could I be so stupid, of course my mother would try to contact me, I was technically a runaway. Would she try to trace my calls or my phone? The only way that I knew of to stop that was to take the battery out, but I needed my phone to work… mabye I could change my number. Yet no, that wouldn't work I'd need identification… as I mulled over the subject in my head my train pulled up. The doors opened people of various shapes and sizes filled out. I got on and sat in a seat close to the door. I checked my watch, it had stopped again.

"Damn…" I muttered. I flicked it in annoyance then checked the time on my phone; 11:20.

_'You alright now?' _Lydia-san's concerned voice brought me out of my reverie.

_'No.' _was my one word answer. I didn't want to go back to the spiral. And start plummeting again, to lose it now would be… bad.

My phone rang again,

_Mom_

It read.

I let my arm drop, the vibration hurting my cut all the while.

Half an hour passed, the doors opened, I walked, I reached my destination.

"Ah, good afternoon Tsukino-san, you ready for the exam?" said Yamamoto-san with genuine sounding happiness. I nodded slowly, once then went to lean on a wall.

Five minutes

"Tsukino-san, this way please" said the principal gesturing in the way of his office.

I followed him in and sat down. He handed me a packet of paper then said "take as long as you like. But can I have all of your personal electronics?" I nodded, took out my cell phone, turned it off and handed it to him. "Thank you." I took a pen from the conveniently placed can of writing utensils. I clicked it with my thumb and started to write in my name. I heard the door shut, softly. I put my pen down and sighed.

_'I'd be a second year but I know that I could test into third… Lydia-san do you think I should stay in the grade that I'm actually in or test into the grade above me?'_

_ It's your decision Andrea.'_

_ 'Gee you're helpful…'_

_ 'Sorry.'_

_ 'It's fine.'_

"I'll stay in second… I guess." I said after a while. I picked my pen back up again and proceed to fill out the rest of the test.

"Phew… that's done!" I said stretching my arms back above my head. After four hours I finished my test, I intentionally missed some questions to get myself into second year. I stood up and stretched more fully. I put the pen back into the holder, grabbed my test and opened the door. School was long over but those who were in clubs were still straggling around. I spotted Yamamoto-san behind the desk clacking away at the computer "Yamamoto-san, I finished my test…"

"Ah Tsukino-san, that was fast… did you cheat?"

"no." I said stoically, fully aware that she was teasing.

"…Okay then, give it to me. I'll have somebody correct it later. Here's your cell back." She said holding out my black texting phone. I took it with both hands.

"Thank you."

"No trouble. What's your number? We'll call you with the results." I gave her my number and left.

It was too late to go back to work so I went 'home'.

*Two Weeks Later*

_"Tsukino-san, we have a case that requires you, come in tomorrow at eight o' clock." _That was Shibuya-san's brief message.

I'd be fully enrolled in school for a week, Mai-san was in my class; we were becoming swift friends despite what we were holding secret in our hearts.

_ 'Huh that Naru-chan, seems we get to see a real ghost buster in action right Andrea?'_

_ 'Yeah, it must be a pretty big case though, because he must have connections with people mediums and such, so why does he need me?'_

_ 'Well… Andrea you _did_ injure his assistant, you're his temporary replacement'_

_ 'Oh yeah… but he's out of the hospital already.' _ She dismissed this piece of information obnoxiously, if she would have been actually in front of me, she would have flipped her hair. She laughed at her mocking display. I half grinned and continued into the school building.

"Andrea-san!" yelled Mai-san catching up with me as I took off my shoes in the entryway

"Mornin' Mai-san."

"Morning… um Andrea-san, I'm not going to be here tomorrow. So when I'm not here don't freak out, or anything. Not that you'd freak or anything in fact I think you're the calmest person I've ever met" she said in a rush, she had a cute tendency to babble when she was nervous.

"Its fine, in fact I'm not going to be here either." I said sheepishly

"Hah, then I spent the night worrying for nothing." And with that Mai-san's other friends; namely Michiru-san, and Keiko-san, whisked her away to talk about boys, of which I had no interest in. I laughed, as if at an inside joke.

Saturday

"Good Tsukino-san you're here on time." Said Shibuya-san when I walked into the office at eight the next day.

"Well… yes sir you told me to come at eight…" I looked around Naru-chan and saw Lin-san mulling over some papers. I felt guilt from injuring him as I spotted his crutches. I walked over to him "Lin-san…" I said to get his attention, he grunted to tell me he was listening. "I I'm sorry for injuring you, it was my fault if you are angry at me feel free to yell or hit me or something just know that I'm so very sorry!" I said louder than necessary, while bowing over and over again.

"… It's okay Tsukino-san…" was all he said. I smiled

"Thank you." He grunted again then continued to read. I sat in one of the leather chairs and waited for about five minutes.

"Naru! I know I'm late so don't say anything!" yelled a panting girl who had just ran in.

"Mai-san!" I asked surprised

"Andrea-san! What are you doing here?"

"Err… I work here?"

"I see you two know each other." Said Shibuya-san, we both nodded then continued to be in shock.

"So this is where you work Mai-san, and after all that complaining about a certain someone." I said in wonder

"S-shut up!" I smiled

"Shibuya-san when are we to leave?"

"Now would be nice, if you two are done being stupid." Mai-san seethed slightly and I narrowed my eyes.

"…*snirk*…" very quietly could be heard from Lin-san, I was probably the only one who heard it.

A few minutes of packing up the trademark black SPR van later we were on our way weaving through the streets of Tokyo.

"Mai-san do you know anything about this case or has Shibuya-san kept you in the dark too."

"Eh? Actually no, he hasn't told me anything as usual, but on Thursday a woman came in and requested to see Naru, when she left Naru told me to call the others to be at our destination at ten…"

"'Naru' huh, looks like I'm not the only one who calls him that…" I said.

"Yeah it matches him well, I suppose."

"So, where are we going?"

"A place called the Lynn manor, I've never heard of it but apparently, it belongs to a rich family from Canada, the wife, who was the woman who came in two days ago, is Japanese and requested from her husband to live and work here in Shibuya." I tried to keep my emotions from showing on my face.

"Ah… I've heard of it… um don't they have kids?"

"Oh yeah, I think the article said that they had a nineteen year old named... Something American that starts with a "d" um… Drake? No Dylan. That was it Dylan, and two sixteen year old twin daughters, Alexzandria and Alexis. I think their names were. But… I read an article in the paper that said their home was broken into, and that that the older one Alexis-san was shot twice and the guy who broke in was also shot, and I think it said that the gun and something like a knife was missing from the scene, apparently their main suspect was the other twin, who suffered from a delusional disorder. Most of her personal belongs are missing and a note written in her hand writing was found."

_'They think I did it! I didn't do it danmit I didn't and how the hell did they find out about my supposed delusional disorder!' _I ranted in my head angrily

_'Andrea! Calm down it's just the media! They blow everything out of proportion!" _yelled Lydia-san to stop my ranting. I held my breath and used a meditation technique to calm myself down.

"Sorry." I said too low to be heard.

"What was that?" asked Mai-san, I shook my head and looked out the window of the van.

It was around ten when we got there; Mai-san quickly got out and rushed into the awaiting arms of a man in a cowboy hat in fact, same man in fact that had stopped my attack t the train station a couple of weeks ago. I chuckled to myself.

_'It's a small world… neh Lydia-kun?'_

_ 'Sometimes, it sure seems like it.' _

I stepped out of the truck; cowboy-hat-man took notice of me.

"Ah! You're that ojou-san I met at the station, what are you doing here!" he asked loudly. I opened my mouth to answer but Mai-san beat me to it.

"It turns out Naru hired her after Lin-san broke his leg again. And get this; we're neighbors and we go to the same school in the same class!"

'_'Again?'' _both me and Lydia-san asked at the same time.

"Really?" he looked at me "The names Houshou Takigawa, more commonly called Bou-san, nice to meet you."

"Likewise, Takigawa-san, Alexandria Tsukino, call me Andrea if you want less trouble." I said, bowing out of habit.

"Geez, Andrea-san, you talk like a rich person!" said Mai-san, laughing slightly at my formality.

_'She doesn't know the half of it….' _ I thought to myself.

"Neh, Bou-san where's Ayako?" asked Mai-san happily.

"Over there, yelling at Masako for something." He said pointing toward the main fountain of the courtyard. I couldn't make out much because of my visual impairment. Mai-san grabbed my wrist and dragged me toward it.

"Masako, Ayako, John, good morning!" she yelled over a red-headed woman's yelling.

"Good morning Mai-san." said a blond haired man. He spoke with a Kansai dialect and had an Australian accent while speaking it, the effect was quite funny. I smiled.

"Who's this?" asked the red haired woman gesturing at me to Mai-san.

"She's a new member of the SPR investigation team, Alexandria Tsukino."

"Ah, Ayako Matsuzaki, nice to meet you." I nodded

"Please call me Andrea, Matsuzaki-san." she smiled and shook her head yes. She seemed to be a very motherly person. I looked at the blond haired man.

"Oh, my name is John Brown, nice to meet you Andrea-san." he said in his accented dialect. I smiled.

**"If you want to speak English with me that's fine, I'm fluent." **I said in English to him, his mouth formed an "o" shape then he smiled.

**"Alright Andrea I might take you up on that sometime." **he said back to me in English,

_'Yep defiantly an Aussie,' _I thought. A small ahem came from somewhere behind me. I looked and saw a small girl wearing a traditional kimono and geta.

"Masako Hara, nice to meet you Tsukino-san." I nodded

"Thank you, Hara-san."

"If you five are done acquainting yourselves, we have work to do." Said Shibuya-san in an annoyed sounding voice.

"Yes sir." I said, I ran back to the van and grabbed a box of cables then walked back to the group. "Where to?" his eyebrow twitched dangerously. Lydia-san was laughing in my head, and I tried hard not to crack a smile,

"… *sigh* … go up the front door and tell Lynn-san that we are here." I turned and walked up to the front doors, they we stained a dark chestnut brown, and had flowers and apples carved in it, courtesy of my now deceased grandfather. I switched the rather heavy box to my left arm and rung the doorbell with a finger. I stared at the once familiar door.

_'This used to be home to me… but I have no rights to be here now, lying to my mother, lying to Lydia-san, lying to Mai-san, and lying to myself. I should be gone and dead, Lydia should be alive, but I'm not. Why?' _I thought sadly and full of self hatred.

"Hello, what can I do for you?" I glanced upward; standing in the massive doorway was an equally massive man with light brown hair and blue eyes that were red and tired looking. It was my father; Timothy Lynn.

"Hi, I'm here with SPR, you hired us?" his eyes narrowed and he stood up straighter

"Oh, you're with that pack of loony ghost hunters my wife called in eh? Listen, girly if you are here just to welch money off of us, I can tell you one thing, by the power invested in me I will have your miserable little business shut down. For good, you hear me? Now then get the rest of your associates and follow me, quickly." My father was a very scary business man; he was a no-nonsense type of person that if you got on his bad side or betrayed his trust you'd have to do a hell of a lot to get back to _neutral_ terms with him, but on the other side of the coin if you were friends with him he would never betray you and would do just about anything to help you. He may have been a conniving tycoon but he's a good ally to have on the battle field of life.

"Yes sir." I said. Best not to fuel his anger anymore, because he would do what he said, if SPR were to be shut down it would be my fault. I looked at the group

"Everyone, come on!" I said loudly. I heard a multitude of steps behind me, "please lead us Lynn-san." he grunted and lead us into the foyer,

"Don't bother taking your shoes off, this a western house." He said when everyone was inside. He lead us to the right of the grand stair case, through the very large kitchen, then into the corridor then right then into the last door on the left. "You can use this room as your base of operations, it was originally supposed to be a dark room, but then we put it somewhere else, there are plenty of plug-ins and if you need any furniture just ask my wife when she comes home. Now please don't disturb me, I'll be in my room." With that he left us all alone in the spacious room.

"…" said everyone.

"Let's get to work, Mai, get base temperature reading for every room in the house, there is a floor plan along with the thermometers. Brown-san, Takigawa-san, help me carry in the equipment, Matsuzaki-san, Hara-san get a feel for the house. Tsukino-san, help Mai." Ordered Shibuya-san, I set down the box of extension cables, then waited after everyone had left to carry out marching orders.

"So Andrea-san… umm, you speak English?" I nodded and looked at the floor feeling the guilt for lying more prominently than normal. I walked out of the room and back out to the van, and grabbed a box that said "temp. Blue prints" with Mai-san following after me, sensing my aversion to conversation. I handed her a floor plan and thermometer, then I took a set for myself.

"I'll take the first floor, you can get the second." Said Mai-san, I nodded and slowly walked back inside, then up the stairs. Down the hall to my left was Alexis' room, it was blocked off by police tape. My room to the right was also blocked by police tape. I walked forward into the other hallway. I took the temperature for Dylan-oniisan's room and okaa-san and otou-san's room then went back to the base, to find Lin-san directing Shibuya-san, Takigawa-san, and Brown-san where to place the expensive looking equipment.

"Do you guys need any help?" I said, announcing my presence.

"You finished all the rooms?" asked Shibuya-san skeptically,

"Yes, most of the rooms upstairs are closed off by police tape though."

"I see. No we don't need your help; most of the equipment is too heavy for a girl to carry anyway."

"Oh I assure you I'm stronger than I look, let me help."

"Fine." I smirked then went out to the van and grabbed the heaviest looking thing that I thought I could manage. I walked it back to the base and set it in the middle of the floor then went out to get another, and another, until all the boxes were in the room and most the stuff was in its proper place according to Lin-san.

About a half hour later everyone was back in base.

"Hara-san do you sense anything?"Asked Naru-chan

"Yes, actually, I do." She said "I sense the spirit of a teenage girl, I'm assuming its Lynn-san's eldest daughter; Alexis." My heart twinged in pain, "Also… I think some sort of dark magic was performed here, it reeks of blood and death, tell tale signs of such." She said behind her flowery kimono sleeve.

"Wow, all that on your first walk through?" Asked Takigawa-san in amazement.

_'Hara-san must be a medium then, if she can "see" spirits.' _I thought, summarizing in my head.

"Yes, she is very prominent; perhaps we should try for a séance later tonight?"

"Mai how 'bout you?" said Takigawa-san

"Eh! W-why me, you know I don't see ghosts!" she said flustered.

"Just asking, but remember, if you have any dreams or visions, tell us!"

"I know…" she sighed. "Something just occurred to me, Andrea-san are you psychic at all?" she asked me.

"I don't remember… I'm sorry." I said, dropping my gaze guilty.

"Hey it's fine; it's not a requirement or anything." She said placing a hand on my shoulder.

Suddenly the lights went out and a voice sounded in the room

"_DoN't toUcH heR!" _ The voice belonged to none other than the man who killed my sister. The wound on my hand erupted in agony and my soul felt like it was being ripped to pieces, again.

"Ahh!" I screamed and fell to the floor. The lights came back on.

"Andrea-san!" I felt Mai-san kneel down next to me. I felt her fear; she wanted to comfort me but was worried what would happen if she touched me again. Just as soon as the pain had started it went away, gradually. I let out a less pained breath I wasn't aware of holding in.

"Tsukino-san what happened?" asked Shibuya-san.

"Umm, I got startled and I fell…" I lied quickly; I didn't want to tell him the nature of my reaction. He seemed to buy it and turned and murmured something to Lin-san, he turned back to us and said

"I think it would be best if were to only travel in pairs from here on out. Mai, stay with Tsukino-san, Matsuzaki-san and Takigawa-san, John and Hara-san, and me and Lin." Everyone nodded.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I was running late and I wasn't able to greet you…" said my mother from the doorway.

"You are Lynn-san?" asked Shibuya-san

"Yes. I assume my husband showed you to this room but not to your sleeping rooms, correct?"

"Yes."

"Then please follow me." She said beckoning us with a hand. We shuffled out into the hallway.

"Before I show you to your room would you mind telling me your names, I'll feel left in the dark if I don't know who I hired for this."

"Kazuya Shibuya."

"Koujo Lin."

"Mai Taniyama."

"Ayako Matsuzaki."

"Houshou Takigawa."

"Masako Hara."

"John Brown."

"… Alexandria Tsukino…" we said our names in turn, a strange look passed over her face when we made eye contact. Did she remember me from the hospital?

"… Tsukino-san, is your hand better?" so she did remember. I lifted my hand up for her to see and pulled back my sweatshirt's sleeve to show her the bandage. It was quickly becoming red because Jacob had reopened the cut.

"Damn…" I muttered. "Yes, but it will reopen like this occasionally." I said, louder.

"Oh dear… how long has it been? Like three weeks? It should be pretty much healed by now… after everyone gets settled I'll take a look at it." She was such a mother to everyone she met, but it was never really annoying. I just faintly nodded and adverted my eyes.

"Lets see… four boys and four girls… there are two guest rooms at the other end of the hall that would fit four to a room, is that sufficient?" she asked Shibuya-san.

"Yes, that should be fine."

"Yeah, thank you Lynn-san!" said Mai-san happily, but with a steely glare at Naru-chan who seemed to not notice.

"It's fine, oh call me Arisu, please, there are too many Lynn-sans in this house at the moment."

"Okay Arisu-san it is then." Mai-san said, we walked down the hall and split up by gender, the boys room was first then ours.

"Wow, this house is so big, I'll bet this room is almost as big as my apartment…" said Mai-san.

"I'll take this one." Said Hara-san from the upper left corner of the room, she sat on the edge of the bed. Mai-san looked slightly angry at her declaration, then seemed to brush it off and went over to the bed in the corner below Hara-san's.

"I guess this one is okay…" I looked at Matsuzaki-san and nodded my head, inclining for her to choose the last of the two beds.

"Thank you Tsukino-san, you at least respect your elders. Unlike some people…" she said glaring daggers at a certain two occupants of the room. Hara-san huphmed and put her kimono sleeve over her mouth. Mai-san just looked guilty.

_'… Wow, they get along great don't they, like a group of sisters?' _ Said Lydia-san sarcastically.

"… Your welcome, please call me Andrea, we may be co-workers but I don't like to be called by my last name much." She nodded and went over to the bed in the corner across from Hara-san; I took the last bed and sat down. My scars; more accurately Lydia-san's hurt, and they were getting worse as seconds passed. I unzipped my black sweat-shirt, revealing a white long sleeve shirt. I pushed it up until I could easily access my wound. I began to unravel my bandage; I scrunched it up and set it beside me, the secondary gauze pad was completely red, it was dripping with blood.

"Andrea-san! That's a lot of blood… are you light-headed at all?" asked Matsuzaki-san worriedly. I didn't give any indication that I'd heard, it was getting harder to think with how much pain I was in.

"Now then Tsukino-san, I'll take a look at that cut… my word! That looks bad." Said my mother from the doorway. She ran in front of me and took my bleeding hand in hers; she took off the gauze pad.

Pain pulsed through me. My breathing was coming in shallow breaths and my heart rate was speeding up. My senses were dulling, all except for the pain.

"I'm… Sorry… I can't keep consciousness… much longer…" I said slowly.

_"Hurry, help me get her onto the bed!" _said a distant voice. I felt my spirit fall backward out of my body.

_It was like those dreams I kept having, except I was floating above Lydia-san's body. I noticed that her spirit was not on the dream plane with me. My/her body's eyes opened, the left one was the normal dulled green, but the other was Lydia-san's… That's it! Her body must have pushed me out because I didn't belong, I was an intruder and her body's spiritual defenses must have pushed me out… or so I thought._

_ "Andrea!" she yelled._

_ "…Are you Alexis Tsukino?" asked Hara-san._

_ "What…? No I'm not… god damnit father what did you do!" she yelled angrily. I floated down beside Mai-san who looked confused as hell._

_ "She said Andrea…. Isn't that her name…? Or maybe not, but if she's not Andrea than who is she?" I heard Mai-san ask herself. Mai-san looked tired then; all of a sudden she fell to the floor with a thunk. Matsuzaki-san noticed this_

_ "Mai!"_

_ "Who are you?" I heard a voice ask me. I turned around; it was Mai-san!_

_ "… Alexzandria… Lynn…" I said._


End file.
